China's special education college entrance examination results were recently released, and Guo Bin, a 19-year-old from Shanxi who made national headlines years ago after being permanently blinded in a brutal attack, scored 721 out of 800, ranking first in his major. He has been admitted to Changchun University, where he plans to pursue a double degree in Computer Science and Technology, as well as Traditional Chinese Medicine, becoming a blind double-degree university student.

According to reports, on August 24, 2013, six-year-old Guo Bin was playing outside his home in Taiyuan, Shanxi, when a stranger lured him to a remote area and brutally attacked him, gouging out both his eyes and leaving him permanently blind.

After being stabilized at a Shanxi eye hospital, Guo Bin traveled to Shenzhen, where a team led by Hong Kong ophthalmologist Lin Shunchao performed prosthetic eye implant surgery. In July 2014, he began rehabilitation training.

Later that year, Zhou Dejun, then deputy principal of a school for blind children in Wuhan, read about Guo Bin's story and personally visited him in hospital, bringing along a blind student to encourage him with real lived experience, and invited him to study in Wuhan. "Teacher Zhang Long's warm embrace and the school's genuine sincerity made us decide to stay in Wuhan," said Guo Bin's mother, Wang Wenli.

When he first arrived in Wuhan, Guo Bin was shy and easily frightened. Zhang Long, then a music teacher, volunteered to be his homeroom teacher through both primary and middle school, staying by his side for 12 years of schooling. When the exam results came in, Zhang Long, whom Guo Bin calls "mom", wept with joy: "Every point represents sweat and persistence far beyond what an ordinary person could manage. He's been through so much."

Losing his sight made his academic path far harder than for most students. Unable to read printed text or work through problems visually, he had to repeatedly trace Braille and mentally rework solutions that sighted students could grasp at a glance.

Zheng Xiaokun, his senior-year math teacher at the Wuhan school for the blind, praised him highly: "His results are well-earned — they came from relentless self-discipline and effort, day after day. He'd work through a single problem again and again until he found multiple ways to solve it, and he was always patient about helping classmates who were stuck."

Beyond academics, Guo Bin also found healing through music. In 2015, encouraged by Zhang Long, he and his classmates formed Hubei's first electric band made up of blind musicians, VMV Band, where he plays bass. Zhang Long brought in a fellow alumnus from the Wuhan Conservatory of Music, Cai Tao, to teach instruments; since the students couldn't see, Cai had them feel the shape of his hands to understand finger spacing and movement.

Zhang Long once told him: "There's no shortcut to learning an instrument, it just takes repeated, disciplined practice." Since then, Guo Bin has set his alarm for 4:30am, practicing at home for over an hour before school each day. He now plays four instruments. The band has performed publicly several times, with videos racking up nearly 100,000 likes.

Guo Bin says his biggest wish is to return to the Wuhan school for the blind after finishing his studies, to teach there and use his own experience to support other visually impaired children, passing on the same warmth and kindness he received.